The technology relates to a cooling apparatus for an in-vehicle device that cools a heat-generating device mounted on a vehicle. In particular, the technology relates to a cooling apparatus for an in-vehicle device useful for suitably cooling the heat-generating device when a road on which the vehicle travels is congested.
In recent years, an electric vehicle becomes popular which is mounted with a battery and which travels by driving, with electric power stored in the battery, a motor directed to traveling. Non-limiting examples of the electric vehicle may include an EV (Electric Vehicle) or an HEV (Hybrid Electric Vehicle).
Such an electric vehicle includes a cooling device that cools the battery, and performs a cooling control that is based on a load on the battery and/or based on an ambient temperature.
Here, for example, in a case where a cooling fan is adopted as the cooling device, it is necessary to increase a rotation speed of the cooling fan in order to increase cooling intensity. This causes a noise such as a wind noise to become larger with the increase in the rotation speed. For that reason, to prevent the noise from becoming larger than a vehicle interior noise and thereby to prevent an occupant from experiencing a sense of discomfort, it is necessary to appropriately control the rotation speed of the cooling fan. Non-limiting examples of the vehicle interior noise may include an engine sound and a road noise. For example, reference is made to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2016-7990 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-178815.